


All Possible Realities

by Pineapple_Bob



Category: Young Avengers
Genre: Gen, a boy can dream tho, deadnaming (but again.. not on purpose), i've never written anything but one shots before though, misgendering (but not on purpose), this may or may not be a continuing work?, trans characters who aren't trans in canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-30
Updated: 2017-01-30
Packaged: 2018-09-20 21:06:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9516254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pineapple_Bob/pseuds/Pineapple_Bob
Summary: Most people say they “always knew,” and Billy Kaplan it was no different. Sure, he always knew he liked boys, but knowing he himself was a boy wasn’t always clear to him.





	

**Author's Note:**

> My roommate: Bobby, stop writing gay fanfiction.  
> Me: okay... *writes gay AND trans fanfiction*

Most people say they “always knew,” and Billy Kaplan it was no different. Sure, he always knew he liked boys, but knowing he himself was a boy wasn’t always clear to him, but as he figured it out, as the veil was lifted, it all started to make sense, it was everyone else that needed to catch up.

“Mom! he got it all over my hair!” Rebecca was use to this by now. Ever since the day they had bought Jacob home, Beth had not been his biggest fan, and it wasn’t like Jacob was an angel either, but the smallest things sent Beth into a full out temper tantrum, she hated being big sister and was having a hard time adjusting, which made the fact that Rebecca was pregnant again, all the more difficult. Rebecca stood with a sigh to go and went see what Beth was over-reacting about now and, oh, oh god. There was gum everywhere in Beth’s hair, well Jacob, only three, sat giggling and clapping his hands together, squishing gum between them, while Beth sobbed as loudly as her 7 year old lungs would allow. Rebecca really didn’t want to know how it had happened, why it had happened, or how Jacob had gotten the gum. She really just desperately wanted to get it out of her hair. Shampoo and conditioner didn’t work, combing it out didn’t work. It felt like she had tried every trick in the book to get the gum out to no avail. She had been at it for so long that Beth’s sobbing had subsided to just sniffling. Rebecca gave a resigned sigh. 

“Beth dear? I think- I think we’ll have to cut it.” She said, softly, stroking her daughter’s cheeks. Beth’s eyes welled up again, and she sniffled loudly, but she nodded, and with that, the haircut commenced. Beth didn’t cry at all as the hair fell, she watched her reflection with an intense fascination, as clump of hair, after clump of hair fell to the bathroom floor, her tears seemed to dry and be replaced with a sort of confusion and wonder. Rebecca could only imagine what was happening in her little brain. She had always been so imaginative, telling story after story of some far off dimension, where a little girl called America was a princess of the planet, and how she and Beth were best friends. 

By the time, they were done, was gum-free, but it was short, messy, and jagged. “How does that feel, dear?” Rebecca asked, putting her hands on Beth’s head. Beth smiled, as big as she possibly could.

“I love it mommy!” she exclaimed, whipping around and throwing her arms around her mom. “I look like a boy.” She giggled, and Rebecca laughed too, and they both laughed again when Jeff came home and the look on his face when he saw the new haircut. That night before bed, Beth took Jacob in for the biggest hug Rebecca had even seen Beth give her younger brother. “Thanks baby brother, I love my new haircut!” Rebecca would be lying if she said she didn’t well up at the sight of her kids finally getting along. 

Two years post haircut, and Beth still insisted on having her hair short. Rebecca was happy to keep it short, it was so much easier to take care of Beth’s short hair than her own long hair, especially now as a mother of three. But today was a quiet day. She didn’t have many patients today, and so today was just doing paper work, and relaxing at the office. Until, of course, there was a knock on the door. “Dr. Kaplan?” Her secretary came in. “Your daughter’s school is on the line. Says she punched another student?” 

“She what!” Rebecca yelled in surprise. 

“I’m guessing you want me to patch them though then.” Her secretary said, leaving the door to go back to her desk. Rebecca had to remind herself that yelling at Beth wouldn’t solve the problem but, man, did she want to yell. She got to the school to find Beth and some little boy seated in the principal's office. The boy, with an ice pack over his eye, and Beth with a bandaid on her cheek. The boy’s mother seemed to get there at around the same time, hugged her son, was told by the principal that he was suspended for the rest of the day but could return to school tomorrow, glared at Rebecca, and then left with her son. 

“Principal Danielson, what happened?” 

“From what I was told, John, the little boy, told Beth she looked like a boy, and Beth said ‘what’s it to you?’ and the boy said that girls shouldn’t be looking like boys, and Beth, well, punched him in the face.” A small smirk played on Beth’s face, until Rebecca shot her a look of disapproval. “So, what is the school’s punishment for her?”  

“Suspension. Until the end of the week.” Rebecca sighed, and motioned for Beth to follow her. 

“Principal Danielson, I’m so sorry. I’ll do my best to make sure Beth doesn’t do anything like this again.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much. You’re a great mom Dr. Kaplan. She’s just at that age.” Principal Danielson smiled, and then spoke to Beth. “Now, when you come back to school, you're going to act like a proper young lady, correct?” Beth didn’t respond, instead her face turned red, she scowled, and her eye’s filled up with tears. Rebecca took Beth home, and Beth did not speak. Instead, she sat in silence, with only the occasional sniffle and, when they got home, ran to her room and closed the door. Rebecca knocked on the door.

“Beth, dear? Can I come in?” A short sob was the only response, but Rebecca went in anyway. “Hey,” she said softly, wrapping her crying child into a hug. “What has been with these outbursts lately? What’s wrong sweetie?”

“I’m sorry,” Beth sobbed into Rebecca’s sweater, “I’m so sorry, I want to be a good… girl..b-but I... can’t.” 

“You know,” Rebecca said softly, “If you want to be a good girl, I think not punching people would be a good start.” Beth sobbed harder 

“You.. don’t get it! I-I can’t be a good girl!” Rebecca didn’t respond, she just rocked her child back and forth until she had cried until she couldn’t cry anymore.  

Beth went back to school the following Monday and the problems never stopped with John. Of course they weren’t as physical as the first encounter, but the name “John Kesler” seemed to come up at every parent-teacher conference the Kaplan’s went to. And Beth didn’t seem to get any better, she just withdrew more. She rarely left her room, she didn’t play with her brother’s like she use to. She worn sweaters all the time and sat almost hunched over, she avoided mirrors. One night after the kids had got to bed, Rebecca wondered out loud if she was just looking for trouble, or if there was something wrong with Beth. 

“She’s just at that age. She’s a teenager now, she’s gonna be insecure about her body. But we’ll talk to her. It’ll be okay, honey.” Jeff had reassured. So the next day they did talk to her.

“Beth, honey” Rebecca said, after Jacob and Toby had run off to go play after dinner.

“Uh yeah.” Beth raised an eyebrow and looked at Rebecca and Jeff, both seeming nervous about the impending conversation, especially Jeff. Giving “The Talk” to his 13 year old daughter didn’t seem like an ideal way to spend Friday evening. 

“You know you're 13 now and just. You don’t have to be insecure about your body.” Beth’s face turned white. “It’s just, every girl goes through it, it’s part of being a woman.” Rebecca smiled, taking her hand. 

“Really?” Beth nearly spat with hostility. “Here I thought every girl wanted to kill themselves because they wanted bigger boobs.” She spat, getting up from the table, and slamming her chair against table, stomping away. 

“Elizabeth Sarah Kaplan!” Jeff shouted, grabbing Beth by the arm before she could leave the kitchen.

“You don’t understand, stop pretending you do!” Beth screamed and torn her arm out of Jeff’s grip her face red as could be. 

“So then enlighten us, Elizabeth what do we not understand that is worth you speaking to your mother that way?” The room was so silent, the air so thick, the earth seemed to stand still, it felt like nothing would ever make it move again. But it only took 6 words.

“I want to be a boy.” Beth said, and then the world started up again. Beth sat now and put his head in his hands, while Jeff and Rebecca took a moment to look at each other. Flashes of Beth’s life play in Rebecca’s head. The haircut, the first incident with Kesler, all the times he had shopped for his clothing in the boy’s section, and threw a fit when they made him wear a dress to family gathering, how his eyes use to light up when someone called him ‘young man’ instead of ‘young lady.’ 

“Oh Honey,” Rebecca said, and wrapped her arms around Beth. Beth cried into her shoulder.

“I’m so sorry. I’m so so so so sorry.” He cried.

“Don’t be sweetheart, oh. I’m sorry! I had no idea.” Rebecca looked at Jeff, who still had an expression of shock on his face. She motioned for him to join their hug, and he did. 

“Don’t worry kiddo.” Jeff said, smoothing down Beth’s hair. “We’ll figure this out. We always do.” 


End file.
